SC to hear Alok Verma plea on Centre’s decision Oct 26

New Delhi: CBI director Alok Kumar Verma on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that divesting him of his powers “overnight” by the Centre amounts to “interference in the independence of the agency”.

The apex court agreed to hear on October 26 the petition by Mr Verma challenging the government’s decision. He has said in the petition that the CBI should be kept independent of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which has jurisdiction over the probe agency, since it seriously hinders the CBI’s independent functioning. He said the Centre and the CVC’s move was “patently illegal” and such interference “erodes” the independence and autonomy of the premier investigating institution.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who has set tough standards for cases being listed for urgent hearing, considered the submissions of advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, appearing for Mr Verma, that the plea needed urgent hearing as besides sending the agency’s chief and the Special Director on leave, several officers probing sensitive cases have been changed.

“Over the recent past, although all functionaries within the CBI from the investigating officer and the superintending officers up to the Joint Director and the Director have agreed on a certain course of action, the Special Director (Astha-na) has been of a different view,” the petition said. It alleged that “hurdles posed” by Asthana have now been compounded by his complicity in “concocting evidence” to impugn the reputation of Mr Verma, leading to a separate FIR being registered by the CBI which has been challenged by the special director in the Delhi high court.

The CBI chief, who later in the day filed the plea in the apex court registry, said there was a need for an independent probe agency as there are bound to be occasions when certain investigations into high functionaries do not take the direction that may be desirable to the government. Mr Verma has assailed the decision of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) by which joint director M. Nageswara Rao, a 1986-batch Odisha-cadre IPS officer, has been given the charge as head of the probe agency. The petition also said that as the apex court has repeatedly stated that CBI ought to be insulated from the government, the present actions give serious credence to the requirement that the agency be given independence from the DoPT.

The ongoing tussle between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana escalated recently leading to registration of an FIR against the Special Director (now on leave) and others including Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar, who is presently in CBI’s custody, in an alleged bribery case. The FIR was lodged on a written complaint of Satish Babu Sana on October 15. It alleged that Kumar, the IO in a case, was repeatedly calling him to the CBI office to harass and compel him to pay bribe of Rs 5 crore for giving him clean chit.